Side by Side Comparison of: Elenco vs Hakko

All I can say about this thing is "It's Fantastic!" After using an el-cheapo soldering station for a number of years, this is like moving from driving a Yugo to driving a Cadillac (like moving from a Citroen to a BMW for you folks on the other side of the pond). It comes up to temp in under a minute (my old one took 5 minutes or more) and holds that temp with ease. The handset is lightweight and easy to maneuver and the stand stays right where you put it. I haven't even started to explore the range of alternate tips yet, but there seems to be one for just about every task. If you don't have a station yet or if you've got a cheap one, do yourself a tremendous favor and get one of these.

I bought this to replace a very old temperature controlled solder station I got back in the early 70's. What a difference technology has made! This station heats up in about a minute and maintains temperature very well, even when "loading" it with a large gauge wire. I've only used the supplied tip, so far, and it has worked quite well for discrete component soldering. I don't anticipate doing any surface mount work, but think that with an appropriate tip it could be done using this iron.

I use really nice soldering stations at work from time to time. I can get really good results from this for a fraction of the price of the industrial grade stuff. With some flux, thin solder and this guy, the limit is my skill and attention to detail.

Just excellent. It replaces a name-brand unit which literally destroyed itself and its iron when I partially inserted the iron into its holder. The Hakko, in the same situation, just melts a bit of plastic. Although I find the sponge arrangement a bit strange, that's not a major issue. Another plus: a wide variety of replacement tips are readily available at a reasonable price.

Do yourself a favor and get this station. It is worth every penny I spent on it. It heats to 700 degrees in about 8 seconds and the grip to tip distance is the shortest you can find on a station. There are a ton of tips for the Hakko that you can find. They are cheap and can be changes in bout 10 seconds with a cool iron.Grip is comfortable and made from a soft but roughed up foam and the cord is a soft silicone that will not fight you when bending. the stand is one of the best features with the wire cleaner tucked away and the sponge in a little tray with a unique design. The water is drawn up from a reservoir with the use of two little sponges.I used to use a 40W iron for years and had a lot of trouble justifying this purchase price, but I did my research and read the reviews and finally bit the bullet. I can honestly saw that this unit was worth every penny I paid. It made my project infinitely easier and I know that the craftsmanship of this Hakko will keep it running for years. Do yourself a favor and get one is you are still using a pencil iron. I promise you will not regret the purchase.

Why I've waited so long to buy a real soldering tool I have no idea but I'm in love. The temperature comes up to setpoint and changes amazingly fast. I turned it on and soldered 2 wires together in the time it would have taken my old iron to start feeling warm. My initial impressions are that its well made. If I had to find fault, one must actually read the directions to figure out the temperature changes. Once you read it makes sense.Update--Had a chance to desolder some components from a PCB and it worked great. Then I soldered a lug onto 8GA wire. Same great performance. The latter I've only previously successfully done with a torch because my cheap irons just can supply the heat.

Excellent value for the money, and tons of tips available. If anything I would have liked it to have a longer cord but the cord is a flexible silicone style (which is also presumably heat resistant.) The base is also very sturdy and heavy. I would like it to include storage for additional tips, that might be the only reason I give it 4/5

This is an awesome soldering station and works for hours on end without any issues. Also gets to peak temperature in less than 20 seconds upon turning it on. I only give it four stars because it does not have a sleep option to maximize the life of the heating element. Still an excellent buy and worth every cent!

Unless you only plan on soldering once or twice in your life and being done with it, this is a solid choice for anyone's first soldering iron.I've gone through several cheap 10-20 usd soldering irons and used a handful of cheap soldering stations. The soldering irons simply do not last for some strange reason. Even the 20 usd ones do not last much longer than the 10 usd ones. The tip replacements don't last and cost nearly half as much as the soldering irons themselves. The cheap soldering stations priced between 40-70 usd don't fare much better. Some of them are nothing more than a variac sold with a cheap soldering iron and a cheap stand.This on the other hand has lasted me months of heavy use. The tip it came with hasn't failed or even gotten dirty yet. It wipes clean every time. Everything from the chassis of the station to the soldering iron to the stand feel really nice. The small form factor makes it easy to transport. The cable connecting to the iron is rubbery and won't get in the way of soldering. The stand isn't bolted to the station so it can be moved around freely on your desk without having to move the heavier station. It even has some wire included for cleaning.It doesn't make sense to buy a cheaper soldering iron for anyone planning to do more than a few hot-fix repairs.

Works good and has lasted for a while. There are better digital units out there, but you have to spend a little more. Be sure to read the manual and pay attention when adjusting the temperature; it is easy to knock the calibration off.

This is a great value soldering station and, in my opinion, the best in its class!After a little over a year of usage, I would rate its soldering performance as "5-Stars." You really can't beat this station's performance anywhere in its price range. The quality of the Hakko FX888D is first-rate, exactly what one would expect from a Japanese product. But, like most products, it has its flaws (see below).I have used the FX888D for countless soldering tasks associated with DIY HiFi circuit boards and other small electronics tasks. In performing these tasks, I have used "specialized" soldering tips (the T18-D16 chisel tip is standard) with smaller tip mass used to solder circuit boards with small component "pads." One noteworthy point: THE TYPE OF SOLDERING TIP AND ITS MASS WILL AFFECT THE AMOUNT OF HEAT TRANSFERRED. And, the temperature at the tip will NOT necessarily be the temperature indicated on the screen, especially with lower mass tips (lower mass tips will be "colder" than the temperature displayed on the screen). All this is to say that this soldering station DOES NOT have a sensor at the soldering tip/handle assembly. Most, if any, soldering stations in this price range don't have soldering tip/handle temperature sensors. So, the Hakko FX-888D is no exception. Just be aware that what temperature you get at the tip is not necessarily what is shown on the screen when you change out the included trip to another type.As other reviewer's have noted, the two-button design of the FX-888D is less than noteworthy--"unintuitive" would be how I would describe it. Why Hakko designers have the "calibration temperature adjustment" mode on the "UP" button is a mystery. I, like countless others, have accidentally entered the "Performing a temperature adjustment" mode (as the instruction manual calls it) and a "mis-calibration" was made resulting in an inaccurate tip settings incongruent to display screen readings (can be hundreds of degrees off). I accidentally entered this mode by holding in the "UP" button for more than 2 seconds, which is what one would do IF we wanted (intuitively) to raise the temperature of the unit while soldering. Right? NO! Not according to Hakko designers. Holding in the "UP" button for more than two seconds actually puts you into the "Temperature adjustment" MODE and whatever digital inputs you put into the unit at this point WILL CHANGE THE CALIBRATION OF TEMPERATURE SETTINGS (as opposed to just changing the tip temperature) and the result will be in-congruencies between what the screen shows and what your soldering tip temperature is! This anomaly is why I deducted 1 star!What do you do if you, like I did, accidentally mis-calibrate the Hakko FX888D? There are two viable solutions.One is that you purchase a soldering tip temperature reading device/thermometer that will give you an accurate tip reading at high temperatures (not many "thermometers" out there that will do this). Then you can calibrate any soldering tip to the precise temperature setting the job requires. Hakko makes such a device (Hakko FG-100), as well as others.The second and cheaper solution is to reset the FX888D back to factory settings. However this, of course, puts one back at the start with possible inaccurate tip temperatures when using smaller mass soldering tips--BUT, AT LEAST THIS WILL MAKE YOUR SOLDERING STATION USEFUL AGAIN. If you choose to reset the FX888D, it is almost impossible to find documentation on how to do this. AND, many souls out there in Internet ether-land believe that there isn't a way to do this. I don't know why this factory reset information was NOT included in the owner's/instruction manual, SINCE it is so easy to accidentally enter the temperature setting mode to screw up the temperature calibration!Luckily, I have a friend who works for Panasonic, who has a friend who works for Hakko, in Japan. She was able to get me the official Hakko FX888D factory reset instructions. For those that need to reset the FX888D back to factory, default settings, here is the reset sequence:Resetting Hakko FX888D to factory "default" settings: 1. Make sure unit is "off". 2. Hold the "UP" button AND "ENTER" button down at the same time. 3. Turn on the unit. 4. Continue to hold down the two buttons until the screen flashes "A". 5. Release your fingers from all buttons when flashing "A" occurs. 6. Push "UP" button one time--the unit will display a "U". 7. Once screen reads "U", push the "ENTER" button one time to exit the reset mode. 8. Unit will begin to heat up to 750℉ (the factory calibration point) and stop at 750℉. 9. Unit is now reset to factory settings. (You can now set your temperature at the desired setting and begin soldering!)Another minor shortcoming involves the soldering iron "holder base." It frequently slides around when "wiping"/cleaning the tip on the cleaning wire. Suction-type feet would have helped. Maybe Hakko designers will make this change in future versions of this base. It does slide around quite a bit, especially on smoother surfaces.In closing, I would just like to state that I love the FX888D! It is one of the best investments I have ever made. After years of using those flimsy, cheap soldering irons you can buy at discount department stores and other big box stores, it is a plesure to use a precision soldering station like the FX88D. To think that I spent MORE than what I paid for the FX88D on all those pieces of junk! I don't know why I waited so long to get a bonafide soldering station. I highly recommend the FX888D (or the discontinued analog FX888, if you can find one) as an excellent, on-the-job performer. Just be aware of changing the calibration by mistake, which is a biggie...

This soldering station seems very well built, and has quite a few nice features. I think it'll last a long time, and it is a MAJOR upgrade over the $20 120V constant-power iron I've been scraping by with for the last couple of years. I don't know why I waited so long to get a quality one.As many others have mentioned, the two-button digital user interface is not great. This station has quite a few features, but you'll need to read the manual and follow the instructions carefully to access them.There is one MAJOR problem with this unit. It is VERY easy to throw off its temperature calibration by hundreds of degrees accidentally. Changing the temperature calibration and changing the iron's current temperature are almost exactly the same procedure, and it's not immediately obvious that you're doing one or the other. I did this almost immediately after taking it out of the box, and it was extremely frustrating.Thankfully, I discovered a YouTube video that explains how to reset it to factory settings (this is not in any manuals or on the Hakko website). Otherwise, I never would have been able to set the correct temperature again, since I don't have temperature measurement/calibration equipment.

Feedback to the manufacturer: Weller stuff looks like old-school manly equipment, some of it still made in Germany. Light blue / black color scheme with great looking enclosures.My 6-year says this Hakko unit "Looks like a toy!" And so it does. Hakko, why de-value your product with wacky industrial design? Blue and yellow are your colors, that's fine, but what's with the melted electric pencil sharpener shape? I'm resisting buying this item because I really don't want to see it on my bench. Just sayin . . .

Bought for a friend he's OK with it.

This is a comment of the amazon ad, not the product: Why force a customer to search for basic data?Googling 'Hakko fx888D I find that leaving off the 23YB gets a silver unit, not blue and yellow.If you Google 'hakko FX-888D it will take you to the hakko web site where you can download the instruction manual or try this, replacing the word dot with a dot: doc dot hakko dot com/download dot php?_gs=on&l=en&kp=**ranking**&d=3316.The device does not have a 'down' button for temp adjustment. Essentially, the device allows you to step thru five preset temps, then fine tune them by selecting a digit position and scrolling up, then enter again to set the digit and move to the next position.

Worked great for the first few months of light use. Seems to be a legitimate Hakko. Build quality seemed great. Unfortunately it shut itself off while soldering some components and is completely dead and wont even turn on. The fuse is still fine. Power switch is not faulty. Power cord checks out. I am more than a little disappointed given the rave reviews. This failure could be a fluke with my device given Hakko's reputation so I am not one staring this failure. Would love to see some resolution to fix it though

I love the iron, it's small and works great for dexterity. BUT, the interface is terrible! The UP/ Hold? enter Bull$*** is totally annoying- Literally Nothing in the universe of gadgets/buttons/menu controls has been this archaic since the 1990's. I'd rather use my old Weller.Gimme a simple dial with a temp gauge.

The method for changing temps is altogether impossible. Instructions spend a great deal of ink on how to change presetprograms. This model does not have multiple presets though I had to discover that by trying to follow the directions andpreset some high and some low. That feature does not exist and resetting the current temp requires magic.I fiddled for an hour today to raise it from 650F to 725F. I had to get out an old station that I thought was to be made obsolete by a Hakko! HA!

This is my first time using a Hakko product, and I have to say that I am most dissatisfied with it, especially after reading all the good reviews before buying the unit. Why is the tip to grip distance so long? To be fair this is not a problem with only the Hakko iron as other irons have about the same 1:1 size ratio of metal shaft to rubber and plastic. The first and second time I used this iron it burned my fingers as I would find my fingers slipping over the rubber piece onto the hot plastic piece (the ring with ridges) near the metal shaft. If you were designing any soldering iron, common sense would tell you to design it so that it is held more like a pencil with your fingers closer to the tip. Holding the iron in this manner would allow you better stability and control while using it. Consider this. No one writes with a pencil by holding it in the middle, or near the eraser. You control the quality of your handwriting by keeping your fingers closer to the pencil's tip, likewise, the quality of your soldering job by holding the iron closer to the tip. I guess engineering school does not teach common sense.Another irritating feature of this unit is the digital interface. The engineer who designed this interface needs to have his brain examined. The unit has only two buttons, up and enter. There is no down button. Trying to set the temperature by simply using the up button does not work. You have to scratch your head, or read the manual to figure out how to change the temperature. This should be as easy as pressing a button, but it is not. Overall the quality of construction is good, but the digital interface and the pencil surely disappoint. For me this unit, the FX-888D, fails when it comes to usability, hence the rating of only two stars. I place the fair market value of this unit at around $60 (my special price for this current economic climate). Let's get it there. I returned mine to Amazon for a refund. Sorry about being long-winded and not curt on this one.

Stop working few days after delivering, not a good product at all 👎🏽

This instrument is not made in Japan Buyers do not get fooled??? Yes even though it's detail says made in Japan. It is made in Malaysia , and other plastic component is made in China.

If you read the reviews lots of people like these units. I honestly wish I had the same experience. I have NEVER seen a more wretched soldering iron in my life. My central issue is with the heating element. I have killed three. The last heating element had 5 hours on it maximum. In all cases I used standard Hakko branded soldering tips and replacement parts. I followed the instructions for care maintenance and operation right out of the manual. I nursed and babied these irons and still the heater elements died and the last one in 5 hours or less. With that experience how would anyone want to give this a positive rating. Another area of concern GREAT CONCERN is the warranty or general lack thereof. I searched high and low on the Hakko site and online as well as in the pdf version of the manual... not a word about a warranty. Oh yeah these guys will be happy to "fix" your iron but they will charge you for it... Frankly guys I have sunk enough money into this turd I will happily go back to my Weller a unit that gave me service for ten years without complaint the only thing it doesn't have is a digital display... BUT AT LEAST IT WORKS.

I'm a hobby enthusiast and in need of a real solid working soldering gun. After reading so many positive reviews, I thought I had found a winner.After using it for few months, I have to say that this is a crappy made product as the tips rarely got hot enough to solder anything. Seems that this machine has a mind of it's own as the heating element worked well enough on few occasions. I've done factory resets, cleaned it, and used different tips to no avail...It worked well for few weeks but after using it only few times a month, unit no longer has enough heat to solder anything. Just frustrated... It's 2.30 in the morning and just wished that I had gone with Weller instead.I would really like to hear back from all the positive reviewers. Is yours still working??? Probably not.. :(

Knock off

Love it! This product is awesome! Very well made and comes to temperature very quickly. I would love for the power cable to be a bit longer but other than that I've very satisfied.UPDATE 11-09-15: After using a few times, I can't get this thing to heat up enough to even finish my project (crossover circuit) for a two way speaker! It worked fine the first week I used it which was like 3 times of maybe a total run time of hour and half max (probably even exaggerating it). Second week I get home from work turn it on while I take out my work cloths (even knowing it heats up quick) I get right into trying to solder some components for my two way crossover and can't even get it hot enough to melt the solder!!!!!! So disappointing.... I tried changing tips, cleaning the tips, checking the pen area to see if there maybe have been loose wire or connections that got undone..... Nothing all normal. Through it's at 750 degrees according to the digital temp gauge it can't even melt the solder!!!!! I take my cheap weller SP40L soldering iron and does circles around this thing... I'll try to get a refund or a replacement. I liked it well on the first several times I used it but now it's worthtless to me! Changing it from a 5 star to a 1 star. I'd give it zero star because I'm so pissed off about it not working in such a short period but there's no option for a no star review..... Will update again when and if I get respond for a replacement as I am willing to give this product 1 more chance due to it's review ratings by other users. Maybe I just get unlucky with a faulty device....UPDATE 2:Received Email from seller (seller is TEquipment - Amazon Marketplace) November 10, 2015 ---> Good Afternoon Victor,Thank you for your email. We apologize that you are having this problem. I would advise you to contact tech support at Hakko to see if they can troubleshoot this for you. You can contact them at 661-294-0090. If they tell you that the unit is defective, please contact us at 732-222-7077 so that we can handle your return. We would need the name of the person you spoke to at Hakko. Please let us know if you need further assistance.Thank you and have a great day!Regards,Customer ServiceUPDATE 3: called Hakko tech support in California then with vacation and holidays I finally emailed back seller December 30, 2015 --->Hi,Sorry I was away on vacation and along with the holidays things been a bit hectic. Anyhow after I spoke with someone from Hakko (California) and did walked me through doing factory reset and have tried it several times, the product is still not even close to temperature range it's suppose to be. I've set it for the highest temperature ratings and even with the factory reset of the device I'm still not able to gain use of the device. It's basically as good as a very expensive paper weight at this point.... I'm very disappointed seeing as how I've even gone as far as buying other tips for it and after my initial use of the product it worked really well. I wrote down the name of the customer service rep I spoke with in California but I misplaced it somewhere. When I find the name I will sure to get back to you. Please advice on what can be done to resolve this issue at this point in time.Thanks, VictorUpdate 4: Seller respond to email same day --------> Good Morning Victor,Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we are outside of the 75 day return window. This would have to be handled as a warranty issue at this point. You would have to contact the manufacturer directly to initiate a warranty claim. Their number is 661-294-0090. Please let us know if you need further assistance.Thank you and have a great day!Regards,Customer ServiceUpdate 5: My response to the seller same day ----> So basically you're telling me that even if this was initiated well before the 75 days that I made known to you folks that the device I received from you folks was a defective one you now are telling me you won't honor a refund and or exchange????! Instead of having to just refund or exchanged it from the get go when you folks were made aware? Instead I was told by you folks to go and talk to Hakko USA first in which I did out of my own time for some worthless $90+ paperweight? I live in Hawaii and California is 3 hours ahead of me. Which means I had to wake up extra early before I head to work to speak with tech support and tinker around with the defective device that you folks sold me because I get off at 4pm and with traffic I can't make it home till 5 or 6pm which California tech support is well closed by the time I even clock out of work! And by the way the tech support person I spoke to was named Natalie with Hakko California. Not that it really matters but I did find where i notated her name. I spoke with her twice.